Then we get to Biden: “I think he has been wrong
on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue
over the past four decades,” Gates wrote.

This is a
pretty dramatic statement coming from
Gates. He's made a name for
himself as a
non-partisan, sober, and highly credible voicein the national security
scene. So while he also describes Biden as “a man of integrity,”
his ultimate critique is sure to be heard and felt where it
counts.

Bob Woodward
of The Washington Post
writes that Gates “reflects outright contempt
for Vice President Biden and many of Obama’s top aides.”

From
Woodward:

Biden is
accused of “poisoning the well” against the military leadership.
Thomas Donilon, initially Obama’s deputy national security
adviser, and then-Lt. Gen. Douglas E. Lute, the White House
coordinator for the wars, are described as regularly engaged in
“aggressive, suspicious, and sometimes condescending and
insulting questioning of our military leaders.”

Though Gates
says that Obama was “right in each” of his Afghanistan
policy decision, he also says that Obama lost faith in his
chosen strategy. During a meeting, Obama apparently questioned
the troop increases and the capability of his staff, namely
then-Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, who was
at one point in charge of the entire war.

Woodward and
Shanker both report that Gates believes his critique to be
“fair,” but that he expects partisans not to look at his book in
quite the same light.

Oddly enough, even though Gates could probably accept any number
of positions guiding national security policy or education,
he
has chosen to head up the Boy Scouts of America.